Second day in Japan on Holiday, was on the 45th (observation) floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. We could feel the building swaying for a few minutes, which is incredible when you think about how far we were from the epicenter. Just shows how powerful it was.
We then had to wait a while before the lifts were deemed safe to use to go down again but the staff were all really good
416
BubbielubApr 20, 2026
+114
I was in that building during a drill and THAT scared me lol. The earth doesn't move like that where I'm from.
114
ARTISTIC-ASSHOLEApr 20, 2026
+67
in Scandinavia the earth never moves, I can’t even imagine
67
0nlyCrashesApr 21, 2026
+6
I felt the Earth move one time as a Midwest American. Freaked me the hell out I'll tell you that. I'm fairly certain it was fracking related as well.
6
AmentetApr 20, 2026
+7
If you can't make the earth move then you're not doing it right.
7
mcgunner1966Apr 22, 2026
+2
This is the comment I was waiting for.
2
t_25_tApr 20, 2026
+30
Glad you’re safe!
I was in Tokyo a few years ago. Felt a tremor, and nearly shat myself because I never experienced anything like it in my country.
Meanwhile the Japanese going about their morning like no big deal.
30
TopEndaApr 21, 2026
+1
I was staying close to there near Chuo Park. I was just sitting there thinking, huh, the building's moving. Can't imagine being up there during it.
1
Koala_eiOApr 20, 2026
-7
> We then had to wait a while before the lifts were deemed safe to use to go down again
Is there no stair?
-7
buttocks-slapperApr 20, 2026
+10
Not an expert, but if it's not safe to use a lift, it probably ain't safe to go down stairs when the ground could shake back up at any moment
10
EnterpriseTApr 20, 2026
+16
Have you ever tried to go down 45 flights of stairs? It's exhausting and takes forever.
16
theytookallusernamesApr 20, 2026
+11
My first workplace was a 55-floor building in which I worked at the 49th. It just so happens to be one of those days where the building did a fire drill and everyone had to go downstairs, no exceptions. Up to that point in my life I've never even thought walking downstairs could be that taxing, well that was the day I learned and by the time I reached the 15th floor I had to walk VERY carefully since a wrong step could've sent my knee in the wrong direction just because of how worn it was having to step down that many pairs of stairs.
I think it took me like two days to recover; and I have a newfound level of respect for the elderly.
11
Koala_eiOApr 20, 2026
-12
Exhausting might be an excessive word. It's an effort.
-12
EnterpriseTApr 20, 2026
+12
Please remember that not everyone has the same abilities you do.
12
buttocks-slapperApr 20, 2026
+4
Especially in a country with this many elderly people like Japan
4
DoctorDazzaApr 20, 2026
+1
Legally yes. But the time it’s take to get 100s down them would be longer than waiting for the lifts.
1
ZulishkApr 20, 2026
+1271
That was a couple of hours ago. I felt it in the Aomori area. Knocked things off the shelves in the stores.
The amazing thing is an emergency alert hit my phone seconds before the shock reaches the area. There’s time to head for safety.
1271
rizorithApr 20, 2026
+270
I've had that go off a few times in California from quakes and it's pretty amazing getting a warning before it hits. We don't get quakes as strong or as frequent as Japan though. Glad you're safe
270
pmjmApr 20, 2026
+16
Interesting, I've had no luck with the California alerts. Gotten them twice, the first time it woke me up and then there was no quake, the second time it came 30 seconds *after* the earthquake did. But I'm not complaining, I'm glad we have something even if it's imperfect.
16
terrorrierApr 20, 2026
+75
That’s one of my favorite anecdotes to include when I teach students about waves and the speed of light
75
boot2skullApr 20, 2026
+23
The waves in the earth travel pretty fast too right? Like relative to sound waves?
23
WingTree77Apr 20, 2026
+41
I believe they travel at the speed of sound of the object transferring the energy, which is dense earth crust, so it’s much faster than sound in air.
Edit: the speed of sound in a medium is mainly dependent on its density. Air has about 343 m/s, water 1.5k, earths crust 5k+ m/s or so. Way slower than light, faster than you can get to a safe spot. Take care cheers folks
41
boot2skullApr 20, 2026
+5
Oh right. I should specify “sound waves in air”
5
mfb-Apr 20, 2026
+1
A few kilometers per second.
1
oneangrywaiterApr 20, 2026
P-waves travel at about 3.7mi/s and s-waves are about 2.5mi/s.
0
js_1948Apr 21, 2026
+1
Right. We had a quake a couple years ago in which I clearly felt the P-waves first (horizontal motion) and then the S-waves (rolling). IIRC, it was about 130 miles away.
1
Koala_eiOApr 20, 2026
+12
You don't use thunder and lightning instead? That seems more relatable to me than earthquake and earthquake alert SMS.
12
Chips66Apr 20, 2026
+5
They probably use that example too but the earthquake example is cooler and more engaging imo
5
alfadasfireApr 20, 2026
+19
Did a tsunami hit? Or still expecting? Local news here doesn't cover it
19
purinsesu-piichiApr 21, 2026
+4
There was a tsunami, but not as high as it could have been, fortunately. The alerts were ended around 11pm local time.
4
Character_Bowl110Apr 20, 2026
+1
tsunami alert raised
1
Grevin56Apr 20, 2026
+8
How's Misawa AFB holding up? I hope they support the local area as needed the way they did in 2011. We were working around the clock doing clean up throughout the province within the week.
8
_jnpnApr 20, 2026
+8
yeah network are faster than seismic waves. pretty cool and strange at the same time
8
Content-Presence-390Apr 20, 2026
+3
Stay safe brother
3
ozzymustaineApr 20, 2026
+348
Japan is highly prepared for earthquakes like this. Let’s just hope there are no more Fukushima-level disasters.
348
drewts86Apr 20, 2026
+80
Fukushima was an isolated event and really only happened because of poor engineering design flaw of that particular plant. Power plants require external power to be able to operate. When they lost AC power because of a blackout they should have been able to switch to their backup emergency generators. The flaw in the design is that the backup generators were not situated in a suitable location that protected them in the event of a tsunami. And without any sort of power the plant couldn’t run the pumps that circulate cooling water. And on top of all of this the plant operator was warned multiple times about this exact issue.
80
Bored2001Apr 20, 2026
+19
Modern designs don't even require power for safety. They remain safe entirely passively.
19
drewts86Apr 20, 2026
+11
Sure, but the vast majority of the reactors out there operating are older designs that do require backup power. The average age of reactors in the US is around 40 years old. IIRC Fukushima was designed in the 60s and construction finished in the 70s. It’s kind of scary that we’re operating reactors that were designed in the 60s and 70s, where the levels of safety and redundancy weren’t fully fleshed out concepts.
11
Bored2001Apr 20, 2026
+6
Yes, I guess I was pointing out the safety of modern reactor designs because people are always quick to fear of Fukushima type events.
They're problems because we are operating these plants 30 years past design life instead of updating to modern designs.
6
TheR1cksterApr 20, 2026
+6
Fukushima wouldn't have happened had the generators been updated and installed on the roof as modern standards had called for either.
It's been awhile, but I believe the plant was given extension after extension to not have to update this.
6
drewts86Apr 20, 2026
+3
Yeah, and for that same reason ships have their emergency generators on one of the highest decks on a ship. If the ship is sinking or the engine room has some kind of major failure (like a fire) you can at least keep lights and other emergency systems online until the last possible second. They also have to be routinely tested and are required to start up within 45 seconds in the event of a main bus blackout.
3
DrictApr 20, 2026
+7
The design decisions were because the accountants basically pushed back and said the likelyhood of what DID happen was in the range of 1/100,000. The designs that got shot down, would have prevented the disaster from ever happening (at a 1/10,000,000 event basically, to the best of recollection)
Basically they didn't want to fork over the extra 3m, vs risking the fallout (ha) from the disaster that did occur.
7
VeearrsixApr 20, 2026
+1
I know nothing about how these plants work, but couldn’t they just use the power they are generating instead of a back up generator?
1
drewts86Apr 20, 2026
+18
How are you going to run on the power you generate when your plant is flooded, causing a blackout?
18
BluePizzaPillApr 20, 2026
+9
The generators were emergency stopped (ramming in control rods). This stops energy production but still produces heat (fuel rods cool down slowly). Bringing the generators back up takes a lot of time and they were partially destroyed. AFAIK the cooling was not designed to be run by the generators anyways. After that they ran out of battery power fast and the backup diesel generators were destroyed by the tsunami.
9
rivenwyrmApr 20, 2026
+10
> the backup diesel generators were destroyed by the tsunami.
because they were left in the basement rather than moved to the roof, after more than 20 years of both in-house & external requests to move them
there was tremendous negligence from TepCo, largely the executives, regarding all sorts of safety and design parameters in the Fukushima plant
> In 1990, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ranked the failure of the emergency electricity generators and subsequent failure of the cooling systems of plants in seismically very active regions one of the most likely risks. The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) cited this report in 2004. According to Jun Tateno, a former NISA scientist, TEPCO did not react to these warnings and did not respond with any measures.[39]
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Power_Plant
10
BluePizzaPillApr 20, 2026
+6
If anyone is worried: the CEOs in charge were, of course, acquitted.
6
rivenwyrmApr 20, 2026
+4
yeah pretty grotesque...
4
Aware_Rough_9170Apr 20, 2026
+3
Wheeeeew, man I was so worried about their livelihoods
3
Mind_AlteredApr 20, 2026
+4
I'd guess the outout of power from the reaction would be massively too high to power small pumps. I have absolutely no idea however
4
tonytolitanoApr 20, 2026
+8
in theory, this may have worked but there were smaller components that failed too and they didn’t have replacements for them. iirc, some of them needed simple batteries and a call was made to the Japanese government to send immediate supplies and help. officials then argued about policy and protocol which really slowed any type of assistance they could’ve gotten.
8
blacked_out_blurApr 20, 2026
+6
So as with practically any nuclear event outside of 1945, a lot more neglect factored into the disaster than the disaster itself.
6
TheR1cksterApr 20, 2026
+1
The plants were shut down to be safe however this causes a large amount of heat that must be cooled.
The generators running the pumps to run water to cool flooded like driving a car into a lake. They were still on the ground and had not been moved to the roof or a set height above predicted flood levels as was called for in modern/updated standards.
1
DismalEconomicsApr 20, 2026
Fukushima was a black swan event…
“ … and really only happened because of poor engineering design flaw of that particular plant… “
Therefore, no need to worry about any black swan events happening in the future.
We can safely assume that particular engineering design flaws at particular locations are a thing of the past.
0
drewts86Apr 20, 2026
+2
> We can safely assume that particular engineering design flaws at particular locations are a thing of the past.
No. No we can not. That reactor, like most of the operating reactors in the US are operating on old engineering design. The average age of reactors in the US is over 40 years old. Fukushima was about 50 years old. Those reactors are closer in age to the dawn of the nuclear age than they are to today. But unfortunately building new reactors is so mired in red tape it’s almost impossible to build, so instead we’ll continue to operate questionable old reactors. I had a friend of mine that had previously worked at Diablo Canyon on the central coast of California, and the stories he told would give you chills.
2
Pale-Acanthaceae-736Apr 21, 2026
It's been speculated that its shutdown routines had been affected by the Stuxnet virus, which was known to have affected specific Honeywell controller models same as with what Fukushima used, This was the same virus created by joint US/Israeli interests to disrupt Iranian nuclear facilities. Maybe it got out into the wild somehow, and found its way to Fukushima?
0
drewts86Apr 21, 2026
+1
Stuxnet wasn’t the issue at all in Fukushima. They had a plant blackout from a tsunami. You can’t enact any kind of plant shutdown when you don’t have power. No offense but any kind of Stuxnet speculation is completely irrelevant. They lost power AND backup power on one fell swoop. You’re welcome to go read the incident reports, as it has been well catalogued. The backup generator location was something regulators had warned this plant about for years prior to the accident. Why regulators let them continue to operate despite the issue is also deeply problematic.
1
Pale-Acanthaceae-736Apr 22, 2026
+1
Where it's believed Stuxnet may have came into play was that it could have crippled the emergency backup systems themselves from properly activating. Again not my theory, just one that I've seen out there.
1
drewts86Apr 22, 2026
+1
Again, irrelevant. The emergency backup generators were underwater. And even still, if emergency generators fail to start automatically there are systems in place for a manual start. The backup starter on the backup generator isn't an electric starter like your car, it uses hydraulic pressure to spin the starter and there's a hand pump to manually pressurize the hydraulic system.
And besides, this isn't what Stuxnet targeted anyway. [Stuxnet was designed to target the centrifuge systems](https://www.csoonline.com/article/562691/stuxnet-explained-the-first-known-cyberweapon.html) for Iran's enrichment program.
1
Pale-Acanthaceae-736Apr 22, 2026
+1
Yes, and I was incorrect about Stuxnet affecting Honeywell controllers. It actually was designed to impact Siemens controllers, which Iran did use for their nuclear program.
1
drewts86Apr 23, 2026
+1
I mean, you were incorrect about pretty much everything. It wasn’t just the controllers you were wrong about the method of attack and what it attacked. I don’t know what you make comments suggesting an air of knowledge when it appears you don’t seem to have any.
> Where it's believed Stuxnet may have came into play was that it could have crippled the emergency backup systems themselves from properly activating. Again not my theory, just one that I've seen out there.
1
ZarerionApr 20, 2026
+122
The problem is the mega quake that’s expected to hit within the next 20 years. No real preparation possible for something like that, especially for as densely populated areas such as Tokyo.
122
ScaldingHotSoupApr 20, 2026
+14
There's plenty of prep possible. Retrofitting old buildings (not many since they were all firebombed in wwii), disaster awareness/contingency planning, stockpiling supplies, etc. These measures save lives.
14
ZarerionApr 20, 2026
+5
Sorry, didn’t mean to paint a „all hope is lost“ picture. Yes you can prep and yes Japan is absolutely doing what it can. I’ve been to Japan twice and plan on visiting again, but still, I hope it all turns out well when that quake does come at some point.
5
CrustyCloudsApr 20, 2026
+36
Watch ‘these final hours’ 2013
36
OfficeZestyclose9952Apr 20, 2026
+5
This seems really interesting and now I have a movie to watch later in the evening.
5
SpermWhalesVaginaApr 20, 2026
+4
That movie is amazing.
4
Koala_eiOApr 20, 2026
+1
I read the synopsis. That seems to be On The Beach but with violence...
1
DukestormThunderclapApr 20, 2026
+1
Good movie
1
NeurojazzApr 20, 2026
+33
I grew up outside cities. The level of threat with infrastructure is absolutely terrifying. We have no sense of resilience anymore as a species.
33
TrickshotCandyApr 20, 2026
+2
Tokyo Drift
2
ExoticSterby42Apr 20, 2026
+23
Tokyo Continental Drift
23
rf97aApr 20, 2026
+5
With 7,5 it is unlikely to reach that level of disaster
5
FlawlessNZLApr 20, 2026
+34
7.5 could be an extreme disaster. It also depends on depth and proximity. 7.5 less than 2km deep within 50km of a major center. Would no longer be a major center.
34
KraienApr 20, 2026
+16
Also, very country dependant. Japan may shrug off 7.5 others will collapse
16
mfb-Apr 20, 2026
+1
4 reported injuries, only one directly from the earthquake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Sanriku_earthquake
Having the epicenter some distance away in the ocean helps.
1
IceWallow97Apr 20, 2026
+9
I felt once a 5.5 and already thought it was shaking quite a lot, nothing crazy but stuff was shaking, 7.5 is 100 times that, that's crazy that we don't even get news about buildings collapsing, Japan is impressive.
9
ch3l4sApr 21, 2026
+1
I'm from Chile and remember the 8.8 we had in 2010. 7.5 is a lot, but it's not scary. Around 7, people just stop what they are doing, look for things that may fall and just wait. Everything that could collapse already did or it was rebuilt. That's why you hear more about tsunamis, it's usually the only scary part.
1
makishiPApr 20, 2026
+5
I didn't feel shit, apparently I slept through it (I work the night shift)
5
bubblyboyooApr 20, 2026
+14
I hope this won't turn into another disaster like 2011
14
N30nNarwha1Apr 20, 2026
+10
The 2011 earthquake was a 9.0 - 9.1 while this one was a 7.4 - 7.5. It's a log scale so the 2011 earthquake was about 180 times stronger than this one.
10
mfb-Apr 20, 2026
+21
It was **far** weaker. 4 reported injuries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Sanriku_earthquake
21
gratefuloutlookApr 20, 2026
+6
I pray to all those in effected. May they all be okay.
6
VlRGIN_4everApr 21, 2026
+1
It's just 1m tsunami
1
Various-Editor-1656Apr 21, 2026
+1
i havent experienced one...but my daughter who lived in alaska ...in the past did...she said it would just shake everything....one never knows when where and how.....im concerned about when the earth caves in ...im thinking that since we have so many water pipes under ground...and they are old the pipes that is...or are...and they leak..loosening the ground under us....then wham...it opens up and anything on top falls into it...the first one i ever heard of was that one in florida where 2 bros were sleeping in a room in diff beds..or two diff rooms...and one of the bros floors opened up and he fell in and never to be found...the other bro made it out...and hardly anyone could get near the house....then where i lived at that time in kansas city, mo...at an apt complex behind where they park their cars the ground opened up....over time this keeps happening....loosening of soil under us....then earth quakes..
1
KirarifluffApr 22, 2026
+1
did you know…. that theres a city with an active coal fire…. raging under it….? it didn’t collapse completely…. only a few holes opened up…. most often examples of the earth opening…. is due to water nearby eroding….. the stability horizontally….. rather than holes opening straight vertically…… of course it can happen…. but dont worry about it….. theres much more scary things…..
1
Throwaway-5834bApr 20, 2026
+1
First thing that came to mind seeing this was the Fukushima disasters. Crazy how seismically active that part of the world is yet human civilization has found ways to thrive. Hope this passes off without any real big tsunamis
92 Comments